On April 23, an OSCE SMM car struck a mine in Lugansk People’s Republic

A tow truck moves the OSCE car, damaged in result of explosion not far of the Pryshyb village, Luhansk area

LUGANSK, April 24. /TASS/. Representatives of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) have handed the body of the Special Monitoring Mission observer killed in a land mine blast over to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) members working on the Kiev-controlled territory, the LPR’s envoy to the Minsk talks Vladislav Deinego said.

"The OSCE observer’s body has been handed over to Ukraine," the Luganskinformcenter quoted him as saying.

The body has been delivered to the Kiev-controlled territory of Donbass, the SMM’s Ukrainian press officer Dmitry Strutinsky said in an interview with the 112 Ukraina TV channel.

"Yesterday at about 10 o’clock at night, the body was delivered to the Ukrainian-controlled territory," he said.

According to Strutinsky, in order to conduct the handover, the parties had agreed to abide by the ceasefire in the Pervomaisk-Molodyozhnoye-Popasnoye area and a corridor had been set up.

The Ukrainian press officer also said that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe would provide further information on the investigation into this incident.

The patrols of the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have suspended work in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic, a source in the European security watchdog told the Lugnaskinformtsentr news agency.

"Patrols do not go anywhere today. It is unclear at the moment whether they will work tomorrow," the news agency quotes him as saying.

Earlier on Monday, LPR envoy to the Minsk talks, Vladislav Deinego, said the meeting of the Contact Group’s security subgroup scheduled for this week had been put off indefinitely because of the incident.

On April 23, an OSCE SMM car struck a mine near the village of Prishib in Lugansk People’s Republic. The mission said one observer had been killed and another two had suffered wounds. According to the LPR security sources, "a Ukrainian secret subversive group was active" in the Prishib area.